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Evaluate the Religious Wars of 16th century France, the English Civil War, and the Thirty Years War

Essay Instructions:
Sources such as Wikipaedia, answers.com, Encarta, and similar sources ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE SOURCES. Essay should have one inch margins all the way around and cite all sources using MLA 7th edition as your citation guide. 1. Evaluate the Religious Wars of 16th century France, the English Civil War, and the Thirty Years War. Were they primarily religious wars or dynastic conflicts? What role did religion and dynastic factors play in each conflict? 2. What were the roots of the Reformation and what factors contributed towards its spread? Compare and contrast the theologies of Luther and Calvin in your answer. 3. Discuss the role played by printing and the printing press in both the Protestant and Catholic Reformations. Your essay should examine such topics as dissemination of information, education, and propaganda. 3. What is the Columbian Exchange and why was it so significant? 4. Would you describe the trade exchange between Africa and Europe during the 16th through 18th centuries as beneficial or harmful for Africans? Support your position. 5. Detail the growth of the slave trade during the 16th through 18th centuries and how it impacted on the development of modern concepts of race and racism. 6. Detail the growth and development of the modern state during the 16th through 18th centuries using one or more of these realms as examples: France, Spain, England, Russia, Holland. In your essay, you should examine the issue of the constitutional and absolutist models of state. 7. Detail the Scientific Revolution and explain why it was significant. 8. Take at least two of what you consider some of the most important factors involved in the witch crazes of the 15th through 17th centuries and explain why you think they are so significant. 9. How did Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIV increase the power and scope of the French monarchy during the 17th and early 18th centuries? 10. Briefly compare and contrast Spanish colonial society in Latin America and English colonial society in North America. 11. Briefly describe the impact of the Enlightenment on European culture and society.
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Date: October 25, 2011
The Religious Wars of 16th Century France, the English Civil War, and the Thirty Years War- were they primarily religious wars or dynastic conflicts? What role did religion and dynastic factors play in each conflict
Introduction
Majors wars have been fought in history and most have been brought about by the fight for power. On the other hand issues such as politics, religion, social and economic factors stand out to start wars. Religion played role of a political vehicle and dynasty helped fuel the vehicle as the heirs to the throne would more often take after their predecessor`s religion which was more often Catholicism. This essay focuses on the Religious Wars of 16th Century France, the English Civil War, and the Thirty Years War; and the role of religion and dynasties in the wars.
The Religious Wars of 16th Century France, the English Civil War, and the Thirty Years Wars were more of religious conflicts than dynastic wars; this is because they involved Catholics and Protestants. Although in the process, power struggles come out as the two religious groups struggled to have one of their own rule the various kingdoms. For instance between 1618 and 1625 during the thirty years` war, Philip III- the Catholic king of Spain, Maximilian and other Catholic Monarchs sided with the King of Bohemia-Ferdinand II- in a fight against protestants and finally succeed to convert inhabitants of Bohemia and Moravia to Catholics. The same is seen with King Charles 1 of England who technically married a catholic princess in 1625 to gunner support from the religion.
He used his influence with the catholic religion to survive even when the parliament of those times tried to reduce his powers by imposing financial sanctions; where he had great support from Catholics like in Ireland he conquered and ruled but failed in staunch protestant zones such as in Scotland. Similar experiences occurred in France during the reign of King Francis I, starting the 15th Century whereby war broke out between Catholics and Protestants following activism by Luther and Calvin; the wars led to a massive massacre of Protestants in 1572 (Meyer). King Henri IV aided the situation by issuance of Edict of Nantes in 1598; he was later killed by a catholic fanatic (Acton, 56).
The English Civil War
The English civil war happened from the 1642 - 1651 where conflicts and political manipulations were experienced between roundheads (parliamentarians) and Royalists (royalists). The first war was 1642 -1646; second was during 1648 - 1649 where King Charles I supporters were against the long parliament. The third was between 1649-1651 where King Charles II, supporters were against the parliament. Eventually the war was won by the parliamentarians in 1651 at the battle of Worcester.
This led to King Charles I to be tried and executed, in addition his son went to exile and was replaced by the monarchy, then the commonwealth and the protectorate which was led by Oliver Cromwell. The Protestants consolidated against the Church of England so as to end its monopoly and launched the Protestant Ascendancy (Salmon, 83). This civil war can be seen to be ignited by the monopoly of the church and where people wanted to fight for their right to worship. The people never wanted to be dominated by the Roman Catholic faith especially since the king used to be aligned to it. The other reason was that the head of the church was also regarded as the head of the state; this would be a problem since it would favor one religion over the others. He would regulate what others did and not influence the catholic followers. They would also have great control over state functions making them look stronger than other religions.
The Protestants won the wars since after the Wellington Declaration; they were recognized and upheld by the state. As a result this was can be seen to be caused by religion differences and political reasons in addition to the social and economic factors. The dynastic factors of King Charles also had an impact especially because of his personality. He was arrogant, proud and believed that kings had special and divine rights (Hughes, 68). He never believed that he would be wrong and hence he would never be corrected in his decisions. These powers that he exercised on matters of finances and religion made him to...
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